Ankyrins are a family of proteins that are believed to link the integral membrane proteins to the underlying spectrin-actin cytoskeleton and play key roles in activities such as cell motility, activation, proliferation, contact, and the maintenance of specialized membrane domains. Multiple isoforms of ankyrin with different affinities for various target proteins are expressed in a tissue-specific, developmentally regulated manner. Most ankyrins are typically composed of three structural domains: an amino-terminal domain containing multiple ankyrin repeats; a central region with a highly conserved spectrin binding domain; and a carboxy-terminal regulatory domain which is the least conserved and subject to variation. Ankyrin 3 is an immunologically distinct gene product from ankyrins 1 and 2, and was originally found at the axonal initial segment and nodes of Ranvier of neurons in the central and peripheral nervous systems. Multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene.
